Last weekend, a delegation of DiEM25 members led by the movement’s co-founders Yanis Varoufakis and Srećko Horvat, as well as representatives from our French National Committee, Paola Pietrandrea and Marianne Dufour, Advisory Panel member Ulf Clerwall, and Coordinating Collective member Lorenzo Marsili, started the process of building a transnational party list ahead of the 2019 European Parliament elections, beginning with France.

French Communist Party mulls joining DiEM25’s transnational political party

The two-day visit began last Sunday with a meeting with the leader of the French Communist Party (PCF), Pierre Laurent. Discussions centred around DiEM25’s proposal to form a transnational political party list with a single agenda across Europe. DiEM25 and the PCF agreed to continue the discussions with a view to join forces in this effort.

Noted French philosopher put forward to join DiEM25’s Advisory Board

A meeting with Étienne Balibar ensued immediately after. The distinguished French philosopher accepted an invitation to join DiEM25’s Advisory Panel, which will shortly be put to a vote among our membership.

Hamon’s “Génération-s” and DiEM25 agree on common agenda to advance transnational party list ahead of 2019

Later on Sunday, a four-hour meeting between DiEM25’s delegation and Génération-s’ leader, former French Education Minister and French presidential candidate Benoît Hamon, took place at the Veblen Institute. The discussions proved fruitful as Hamon and his team agreed to be part of the process leading to the formation of a transnational party. We also agreed with Hamon on devising a common agenda that will comprise DiEM25’s European New Deal policy proposal to bring about a federalist European Green New Deal, while embarking upon a federal constitutional assembly process by 2025.

In addition, it was agreed that by the end of February, DiEM25 and Génération-s would release a common call to progressives around Europe to join them.

Transnational party formation agenda

In March, DiEM25 will organise a meeting with all political partners that by then may have agreed to form the transnational party from Poland, Denmark, Greece, France and Italy, among others. This meeting will take place in Naples, at the invitation of Mayor Luigi de Magistris. Those present at this meeting will also convene to form a council to collectively govern the transnational party list. By April, the combined forces joining the transnational party will have agreed on a basic European programme.

Rolling out a transnational political party across Europe’s capitals

Starting next June, a series of launch events will take place across several European capitals, from Berlin to Warsaw, from Copenhagen to Athens, culminating in Paris to announce to the peoples of Europe the formation of this transnational political party list and its founding manifesto. By late July, the members of the various organisations taking part in this initiative, including DiEM25, will vote the transnational party’s founding manifesto and programme, as well as the joint Spitzenkandidat for the presidency of the European Commission.